In previous work with Mark Lemley I have discussed the critical role played by the courts in fitting patent law to the ongoing needs of innovation. Careful scrutiny of the recently enacted America Invents Act (AIA), which legislatively reforms American patent law, underscores the need for robust...

A variety of commentators have called for the increased application of liability rules, including compulsory licenses, to intellectual property. Such arguments are well taken, but unfortunately stop short of advocating the full range of potential intellectual property entitlement allocations....

Recent commentary on the patent system has argued that there is little evidence supporting the incentive justification for patenting, so that continued faith in patents constitutes a kind of irrational adherence to myth or falsehood. While an obituary for the incentive theory of patenting is...

In his article on Creating Around Copyright, Joseph Fishman argues that the constraints imposed by copyright law promote the creativity of subsequent follow-on authors. He suggests that by limiting creative choices, copyright exclusivity may actually enhances the output of follow-on authors by...

Copyright law is largely a response to new media: from the printing press through radio, photocopiers, and digital computers, changes in copyright reflect the increased public availability of information reproduction technologies. But while the exclusive rights conferred by copyright are shaped...

In its recent patentable subject matter opinion in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, the United States Supreme Court articulated a two-step patent eligibility test that hinges on the presence of an “inventive concept” in the patent claims. This short essay considers the connection between the...

Intellectual property frequently carries with it exclusive rights not only over the primary subject matter of the rights granted, but also over ancillary subject matter that is not within the definition of the primary grant, as for example in the patent doctrine of contributory infringement....

Professor Sichelman’s article on “Purging Patent Law of Private Law Remedies” offers a welcome and useful perspective on the reform of patent remedies. In this comment I critique some of his assumptions regarding the “private” nature of patent and other remedies, then turn to...

A great deal has been said in recent years about patent disclosure. But to say that there is a disclosure function in the patent system implies that there is non-disclosure functioning in the patent system as well. For some information to be disclosed in a patent, other information must go...

Academic researchers access commercial websites to collect research data. This research practice is likely to increase. Is this appropriate? Is this legal? Such commercial websites are maintained to achieve business objectives; research access uses site resources for other purposes. Website...